Michael MuchmoreKindle for iPhoneAmazon brings e-book reading on the iPhone to a new level by opening up its huge catalog of Kindle titles to Apple's smart phone darling. But the reader itself is limited compared with competitors like Stanza and Classics.

Offers the most (and most current) titles of any iPhone e-book reader app. Syncing holds you placemark on multiple devices.

Cons

Little interface customization. No page-turning animation. No transfer of your own docs to the phone. Can't buy books from within the app. No periodicals. Weak help.

Bottom Line

Amazon brings e-book reading on the iPhone to a new level by opening up its huge catalog of Kindle titles to Apple's smart phone darling. But the reader itself is limited compared with competitors like Stanza and Classics.

Want the latest Danielle Steele page-turner on your mobile device? If you're an iPhone user, you no longer have to settle for less-fresh reading matter. The just-released Kindle for iPhone book-reader application gives iPhone and iPod Touch owners access to the vast selection of copyrighted titles available to Kindle users240 thousand titles and counting. Of course, the iPhone is smaller than a book, and some would argue that the Kindle's screen is gentler on the eyes. And I found myself missing capabilities of other e-book readers for iPhone, such as Stanza and Classics. But for iPhone owners who don't want to spring for $360 expense of a new Kindle, this free app from Amazon is a welcome alternative.

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With Kindle for the iPhone, you have to sign up for an Amazon account before you can start reading books, a requirement other readers don't have. If you have an existing Amazon account, you can use that to register for the Kindle service. When I first signed in, I was taken to a blank Home page, with a Get Books link at the top-right corner of the screen. The Get Books link brings up a page telling you that the best book-acquiring experience is at the Amazon website for the Kindle Store via your PC. You can also buy books using the iPhone's mobile Safari browser, but the Kindle Store isn't optimized for mobile browsing. I would have preferred the ability to acquire books right from the iPhone app, as you can in pretty much every other iPhone e-reader app.

Popular current titles cost $9.99you'd pay over $20 in the book store. If you're already a Kindle user, you can download your previously purchased e-books at no extra cost. Amazon's Whispersync technology will even keep your bookmarks up to date on both devices.

As you might guess since Amazon has been in the business for a while, the bookstore is very well organized. You'll find every genre category imaginable, and you can browse Kindle, national top sellers, or Editors' Picks. One quibble: the site doesn't let you peek into the book's contents the way the regular bookstore on Amazon does. As with the Kindle device, the iPhone app lets you grab the first few pages of a book as a free preview. You'll also find the occasional free selection, such as several World's Greatest Books volumes. But there's no Free category to browse, and the table of contents in the greatest books isn't actually linked to the contents. So if you're looking for free classics, you're better off with Stanza or Classics.

Though the Kindle Web store offers newspapers and magazines, when I tried to subscribe to those, the site told me that I had no Kindle or iPhone registered to my Amazon accountstrange, considering that I'd just bought books for my iPhone. I can't be sure whether Amazon intends to include magazine and paper content for the Apple device in a later version or not. I'd appreciate seeing mention of this in the Kindle for iPhone help. Speaking of help, since the app's link for help leads to a Web page, content formatted for the iPhone would be preferable. And, unfortunately, you can't transfer your own documents from your PC to the reader: For that, get Stanza or BookShelf.Next: Reading Books

Kindle for iPhone

Bottom Line: Amazon brings e-book reading on the iPhone to a new level by opening up its huge catalog of Kindle titles to Apple's smart phone darling. But the reader itself is limited compared with competitors like Stanza and Classics.

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About the Author

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine's lead analyst for software and web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine's coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of web services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine's S... See Full Bio

Kindle for iPhone

Kindle for iPhone

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